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Dr Ameisen said that baclofen was so effective that it enabled alcoholics to return to social drinking rather than cutting it out completely, which is often the route that counsellors recommend.

He said: "Mine is the first case in which a course of medicine was completely suppressed alcohol addiction. Now I can have a glass and it has no effect. Above all, I no longer have the irrepressible need to drink."

One of France's most respected cardiologists, he said he took to drink despite his success after being struck by a sense of inadequacy. He wrote that he felt like "an imposter waiting to be unmasked."

He wrote: "I detested the taste of alcohol. But I needed its effects to exist in society."

Between 1997 and 1999 he spent nine months in clinics trying everything from hypnosis to acupuncture, without success. Then a friend sent him an article about how a cocaine user with muscle problems had been cured of his addiction after being prescribed baclofen.

Two years later he started treating himself with the drug and noticed "almost immediately" that his desire for alcohol was diminishing. He gradually built up to his maximum daily dose of 270mg, and even now takes between 30 and 50mg.

In Switzerland, Dr Pascal Garche tried a small scale experiment using baclofen on 12 patients. He said seven experienced significant improvements.

Now the French agency that tests and approves drugs, L'Agence Francaise de Securité Sanitaire des Produits de Santé (Afssaps) has said it will consider "how to organise clinical trials". It also warned that baclofen does have side effects.

Some doctors are concerned people might think alcoholism can now be cured by a pill.

Dr Michel Reynauld of Paul Brousse Hospital in Paris, told the BBC: "Encouraging people to think that there is a miracle molecule is to completely misunderstand the nature of alcoholism, and is extremely irresponsible."